Athletic journalist Phil Hay has said Marcelo Bielsa will be infuriated by the chances that are being wasted by his Leeds team.
Leeds are top of the Championship after a fast start to the season but they’ve dropped points in games that they’ve dominated.
Their one defeat of the season came at home to Swansea, when they boasted 61.9% possession and had 21 shots to Swansea’s seven. From these, they only managed three on target to Swansea’s two. [WhoScored]
Talking in a Q&A with Leeds fans on the Athletic website on Thursday, Hay said that Bielsa will not be happy at the wasted chances this season.
“You wonder if he’s going home and banging his head off the wall at night,” Hay said.
“He’s so particular in his work and he drills his players to such an extent that the wasted chances – and the fact that it keeps happening – must be infuriating for him.
“How does he fix it? Costa might be one way of improving the quality of service and of course he has Nketiah.”
Leeds’ big chance
Leeds came close to promotion last season but ended up in third and then lost to Derby in the play-offs.
The story of last season was one of dominating possession but not converting that into goals.
Leeds ended up scoring 20 goals less than champions Norwich and five fewer than Sheffield United who were runners-up. Both West Brom and Aston Villa scored more goals than Leeds.
Leeds are favourites to win the Championship this season and as short as 4/9 to finish in the top two, but goal conversion is still a problem.
Talking about the issue last week, Bielsa said there was no quick fix. [Yorkshire Evening Post]
“Last year we needed between four and five chances to score a goal,” Bielsa said. “Now we need six chances to score. The team has improved a lot in defensive play but we need a lot of situations to score one goal.”
Bielsa makes a good point about defence here – Leeds have only conceded three goals this season in seven league games.
Nketiah the answer?
Hay named the two players that Bielsa has who can make a difference.
Helder Costa and Eddie Nketiah are still waiting for their first league starts.
However, Bielsa has also praised striker Patrick Bamford and claimed he would “improve his efficiency” sooner or later. [Leeds Live]
That suggests he will keep faith in him against Derby.
The All Stats Aren’t We Twitter account produced a great thread on Bamford, highlighting goal conversion and shots on target as areas of concern.
Bamford has taken 3.48 shots per 90 minutes in the Championship this season but has only hit the target with just over a third of them. By contrast, Nketiah is averaging 4.74 shots per 90 minutes and hitting the target with 60%. [WyScout]
That doesn’t tell the full story, with Bamford holding the ball up well, but it can only be a matter of time before Nketiah gets a start if Bamford doesn’t improve his efficiency soon.